


four kids and a dog

by eggharbor



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alice Cooper (Archie Comics) is the Worst, Alternate Universe - Scooby Doo Fusion, Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper Friendship, Archie Andrews & Jughead Jones Friendship, Archie Andrews & Veronica Lodge Friendship, Archie Andrews Being an Idiot, Archie Andrews Needs a Hug, Archie Andrews is a Good Friend, Author Is Sleep Deprived, BAMF Betty Cooper, Best Friends, Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones Friendship, Betty Cooper & Veronica Lodge Friendship, Betty Cooper is a Good Friend, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge Friendship, Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, Jughead Jones is a Good Friend, M/M, Mechanic Betty Cooper, Mentioned Hot Dog (Archie Comics), Paranormal Investigators, Pre-Poly, Protective Archie Andrews, Protective Jughead Jones, Protective Veronica Lodge, Supernatural Elements, Veronica Lodge is So Done, Veronica Lodge is a Good Friend, also in this universe no one in core four has dated each other, also throwing this out there because i haven't decided yet, first chapter is mostly set up and then it'll be little oneshots, has this been done before?, i'm bitter, maybe eventually poly, no like actually they are friends and hang out together, remember when they tried to tell us they were going to focus on friendships, we shall see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22086757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggharbor/pseuds/eggharbor
Summary: "Yikes," says Betty, who's looking a little worse for wear."We're about to be offered up as sacrifices to rabid, zombified seven-year-olds...""I think the proper name for them is 'ghoul children'," interjects Jughead, unhelpfully, as per usual."Fine, ghoul children," Veronica sighs, rolling her eyes at the pun, "but still, all you can say is yikes?""I don't think they're real. They might be wearing masks," Archie adds. Veronica reminds herself to stay calm. She can't slap him. Her hands are bound."When we get out of this, you all owe me milkshakes."(Well, it goes a little something like this: Archie gets rejected. Betty needs a break. Jughead is broke. And Veronica is not going anywhere without them. Throw in a used van and a wiry old dog, along with a few dozen weird-ass mysteries to solve, and you've got one hell of a gap year.)
Relationships: Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge, Archie Andrews & Jughead Jones, Archie Andrews & Veronica Lodge, Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper & Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper & Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge
Comments: 19
Kudos: 30





	1. how the whole thing starts (or, as veronica would say when she's being dramatic, core four forevermore)

**Author's Note:**

> well whoops veronica mars is forever ruined for me and they put scooby doo back on netflix so enjoy this rollercoaster

It goes a little something like this.

Archie doesn’t get into Juilliard. It hurts, and he cries, and his three best friends comfort him with takeout from Pop’s and romantic comedies and promising to beat up the associate dean for enrollment management. After some encouragement, he resolves to take a gap year, work on his resume, and reapply in the fall.

Betty, completely fried from eighteen years of her mother breathing down her neck, works out an outline for a gap year and defers her acceptance to Columbia. She doesn’t tell Alice, who’s only gotten more neurotic since all of her acceptances came back, but she does tell Archie, who breathes a little easier knowing he won’t be alone.

Jughead’s decision is more based on a severe lack of funds than anything else. Financial aid only goes so far, and the scholarships he’s awarded still don’t cover enough. His meager savings from working at the drive-in mostly go towards groceries and utility bills. He tells Archie and Betty he’s taking a year out of solidarity, and if they know better, they don’t tell him so.

It comes down to Veronica. Veronica, with full-ride offers from multiple big name schools, Veronica, who’d managed to run a business as a seventeen-year-old girl, Veronica, with the world at her fingertips, calling out to her, ready for her to take it by storm… But after the others make their decisions, her mind is already made up. She’s not going anywhere without them.

The van is a present from Mary. She’s proud of her son regardless, because he’s a good kid, and she’s so happy that he has friends like Betty and Jughead and Veronica. She suggests the four of them take a road trip once they’ve graduated, and it’s almost comical how fast their faces light up. Betty starts planning moments after she sees the van — it’s going to need some updates, a new paint job, a little tinkering under the hood. Jughead vows to map out all the best spots to eat, Veronica offers funding for their trip, and Archie starts to look more and more excited, wiping away the lingering traces of disappointment from his face.

Betty spends every spare moment she has in the Andrews’s garage, grease stains all over her face and her arms, which throws Alice into several fits of hysteria. Then her clothes start getting covered in paint, and that sparks some fights, too. Jughead starts making note of everyone’s dietary preferences. Betty’s vegetarian, has been since that awful documentary in freshman AP Human Geo, and Archie has some issues with peanuts. Veronica is lactose intolerant, but try and stop her from downing multiple chocolate shakes in one sitting. He, of course, will eat just about anything, so he only has to cater to his friends. Veronica wraps things up with Pop Tate before they leave, returning the diner and the speakeasy below to him. He gives her a hug and tells them to all take care. He also tells them their meals are free from here on out, which is the best news Jughead has heard all week.

Hot Dog is a present from FP. Well, kind of. FP knows he’s not the best dad in the world, not when there are men out there like Fred Andrews (though none even compete with the original, God rest his best friend’s soul). He is proud of his son, though, for graduating and working hard and for being the amazing kid he is. So the Serpents adopt Hot Dog IV, and he passes down Hot Dog III to Jughead right before they graduate. They bond immediately, and are basically inseparable. Jughead asks his friends if it’s okay to bring him with, and though Betty grumbles about having to make sure all the places she’s marked off are pet-friendly, she stubbornly insists he’s a part of the group with when Jughead sadly offers to leave him at home.

The day before graduation, Veronica helps them all pack a couple bags, and Jughead uses Veronica’s card to buy snacks for the road. Archie makes sure they’ve got first aid supplies and tools for the road, just in case, and buys the essentials for Hot Dog — leash, food bowl, treats, etc. In a way, the dog doesn’t just belong to Jughead anymore, he belongs to all of them. Betty puts her final touches on the van, and reveals something straight out of the era of hippies and world peace. Blue, green, and orange, the van screams “flower power.” At first, Veronica’s turning up her nose, but then she sees the way her friends’ eyes are shining — “Look, the Mystery Machine! It’s perfect.” — and the objections die in her throat. She can get used to it. Her friends and their happiness are the most important things in the world.

The day after graduation, they say their goodbyes. Alice pitches a fit, so Betty rushes next door and says goodbye to Mrs. Andrews, who tells her to be safe. FP ruffles Jughead’s hair and ruffles Hot Dog’s fur, too, before he watches them climb in the back with Betty. Things are tense at Veronica’s. She doesn’t let anyone come up to get her, just has them text when they’re outside. Her eyes are suspiciously wet, but they don’t say anything. She’ll tell them when she’s ready. They head out, and it only starts to feel real when they pass the sign warning them they’re leaving town. But they aren’t going back. Betty unfurls the map and points to their first stop, and they’re off.

And that’s how it starts. Four kids and a dog. It really only spirals from there.


	2. don't stop smiling, betty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're finally out of Riverdale. Now what?

“Betty, you said another eight miles until our exit, right?”

Betty, who’s been dozing on Veronica’s shoulder, startles awake when the other girl pokes her gently. “What… oh, yes, sorry, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Archie reassures her, “except… there’s no more road.”

She squints ahead. “Huh?” But Archie’s right. The entire road is closed off by men in orange vests and big reflective blockades. She sighs softly at the sight. “Okay, I guess you have to take the detour. I’ll check out the map.”

“We should stop in the next town for lunch!” Jughead shouts from the back, where Hotdog is asleep on his lap. Hotdog doesn’t seem to know or care that he really does not qualify as a lapdog.

“Yeah, I’m getting kind of hungry too,” Veronica adds. Archie shoots Betty a look.

“That mess up your schedule too much, Betts?”

“No, it’s fine,” she grumbles, half-heartedly, though her stomach’s growling, too. She directs Archie to turn left down a winding road, and twenty minutes later, they find themselves in a tiny little town. ‘Violet Springs,’ reads the cheerful sign just outside, ‘Where everyone smiles and things are perfect’.

“Cute,” Veronica murmurs.

“Maybe we should keep driving,” Betty says. She’s got a bad feeling about this place.

But Jughead and Veronica are starving, and Hotdog’s getting antsy, and Archie tends to go with the majority, so Betty finds herself outvoted. She stares down the last word in the town’s slogan as they pass by.

The place they decide on for lunch is the Riverside Diner. It’s all lit up in purple neon, and all the patrons are smiling. Veronica nudges her, the beginnings of a grin on her face.

“Their version of Pop’s. Isn’t it great, B?”

“It’s sure something,” Betty says. They take a seat in a corner booth, and Betty makes certain that her seat is the one facing the door. Jughead shoots her an odd look, but she waves him off. They aren’t staying long. It’s fine. It’s remaining trauma from her mother, from the perfect girl facade, that’s all. It’s _fine_.

She takes a deep breath, and tries to distance herself from her mounting paranoia by observing the buzz surrounding them. There’s a family with three young children a couple booths over, laughing at something one of the kids is saying. At the counter sits an older couple, snuggling up together like teenagers with no concept of personal space at all. A rowdy crew of middle schoolers take up two tables across the floor, which floods her mind with sepia-colored memories of twelve-year-old Betty and friends heading to Pop’s right after school to buy milkshakes with whatever pocket money that had on them. The nostalgia makes her heart ache.

It almost distracts her from the fact that the family is still laughing. That the middle schoolers’ chatter doesn’t seem to contain actual words. That the older couple, once too wrapped up in each other to bother with anyone else, has now turned to look at their table wearing matching smiles that seem a little too kind to be genuine.

Dread creeps in. She swallows, not daring to break eye contact with the old woman, still watching the four of them with eery glee.

She’s so lost in thought that Archie has to order for her, that Veronica takes her hand and squeezes to bring her back down to earth.

“Betty,” she whispers, and Betty feels her fingers start to curl up towards her palms.

“Arch,” she mumbles, and _wow_ , since when did her voice sound so shaky? “Archie, do you think we can get everything to go?”

He frowns at her, but nods all the same. “Yeah, Betts, I’ll ask, don’t worry.”

“Betty, what’s wrong?” Veronica pleads, and Betty chances another look at the couple at the counter, still watching them with predatory grins.

“This isn’t real,” she finds herself telling them. “It’s a trap.” The grins get bigger. Betty shivers.

Veronica’s rubbing circles on the back of Betty’s hand with her thumb. “B, honey, you’re scaring us,” she murmurs. “What’s a trap?”

The family stops laughing. The preteens’ racket dims to a gentle hum. The couple is still staring.

“Forget the food.” Betty shoves Archie’s shoulder with urgency, watching as the couple starts to stand. “We need to go. Now.”

“Betty—” Archie tries. The family is standing now, too. The kids at the two tables have fallen silent.

She swears. “Move, move, Arch, fucking move!”

Jughead starts to look around, decidedly less worried than Betty, though he does start to get anxious upon noticing the expressions on the people around them. “Yeah, guys, I think I’m with Betty. We should go.”

The couple is nearly at their table. When Archie stands, they’re within reaching distance. She shudders. The smiles are absolutely _inhuman_.

“Arch, look out!” She cries. He narrowly dodges the woman, who tries to claw at his face.

“Whoa!” He stumbles back into the table. “Sorry, ma’am, I—”

“Archie, don’t apologize!” Betty snaps. “Just _run_!”

Jughead’s slid out of the booth, at this point, and Betty’s right on his heels. Veronica, finally up to speed, grabs Archie’s wrist and pulls him after her. It’s a mad rush out of the diner. Betty knocks over every chair and plate and glass she can reach in a desperate bid to slow down the people chasing them.

She looks back and gulps. _Not people_ , her brain reminds her as she sees their faces. _Things_.

Jughead gets to the door first, and shoos the other three out before he slams it shut. One of the things takes a hit right to the face. Betty gags.

Where its skin had made contact with the glass, its features were now smushed in, like it was entirely made of wet clay. And as it peeled itself away…

Veronica turns to the shrubs lining the side of the building and wretches while Archie rubs her back. Betty can’t tear her eyes away from the bleeding, oozing thing in the diner, staring at the skin it’d been wearing still stuck to the diner’s door.

“What. The. _Fuck_ ,” Jughead breathes. Betty has to agree with him.

“We need to get back to the van, and get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah,” he whispers. “Besides, I’m not really hungry anymore.”

By the time they’re piling into the van, the things have managed to escape. Betty scrambles into the passenger seat.

“Archie,” she pants, “floor it and don’t you dare look back.”

“Way ahead of you,” he grunts. The van jerks to life. Betty pats herself on the back for insisting on new seatbelts, because they’re the only things keeping her and Veronica from flying forward through the windshield and Archie maneuvers his way out of the parking lot. Hot Dog’s climbed up on Jughead’s lap in the back, whimpering at the sounds of impact just outside. Betty doesn’t want to know how many of those things they’ve run down. She just wants out of this fucking town.

It’s a miracle none of them die. Archie is not good enough at driving for this kind of chase. When her heart rate finally slows and she can think clearly again, Betty’s sure she’ll have a panic attack at the damages done to the van. Veronica’s nails dig into the skin of her arm as she wraps herself tightly around Betty, whispering prayers in Spanish.

She doesn’t know exactly when breathing gets easier. Maybe when they take that first turn. Maybe when they’re back on the main road. Maybe when they drive past the sign from the way in, which Betty flips off for her own peace of mind.

She does know that Jughead speaks first. “You all saw that too, right?”

“Told you I had a bad feeling,” Betty mutters. Veronica starts to shake.

“That was real, wasn’t it?” She sniffles. Betty tugs Veronica closer. She buries her face into Betty’s shoulder.

“Those things… what did they want from us?” Archie asks. Betty shrugs, but it feels forced.

“Maybe they were the ones who created the detour,” Jughead pipes up. Veronica tenses, and Betty shoots him a glare. He winces. “Or… y’know, maybe I’m wrong.”

“Maybe they’re still after us.” Archie’s voice is quiet. Betty sighs.

“You know, we haven’t left Riverdale like this before. Who knows what’s out there?”

Veronica hiccups. “More of those monsters?”

“Maybe.” She bites her lip. “Maybe not.”

“I think you’re right, Betts,” Jughead says. “I mean, think about all of the shit we went through back in Riverdale.”

“I’d rather not, thanks.”

She can feel Jughead’s eye roll from the front seat. “Okay, well, you know what I mean. The murders and the drugs and the weird cult things happening… and that was just in Riverdale. What if there are other things out there, you know? Didn’t there used to be some story about witches in Greendale?”

“That was just a story,” she tells him, more to reassure herself than anything else. It _was_ just a story… right?

“Was it?” He asks, and Betty’s mind is brimming with doubt. She shakes it off when she hears Veronica sob.

“Jug,” she whispers. “It was just a story.”

He takes the hint and stops talking. Archie keeps driving. Betty holds Veronica and stares out the window.

Just to be safe, they don’t stop again for some time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things are about to get hella spooky... so watch out! just a short lil one to introduce our gang to what's coming...


End file.
